The Wedding Veil

Harvey follows Under the Southern Sky with a satisfactory account of a wedding veil shared by two families. In present-day North Carolina, Julia Baxter is preparing for her fairy tale wedding, which is made complete by the veil passed down in her family as a symbol of eternity. But when she receives a text with a video showing her fiancé cheating on her, Julia calls off the wedding and decides to go on her honeymoon to the British Virgin Islands alone. Though the wedding veil is an heirloom, its provenance before Julia’s great-grandmother passed it down to Julia’s grandmother Babs is murky. A parallel narrative follows the independently minded Cornelia Vanderbilt, who grows up at Asheville’s Biltmore estate and loses her mother’s wedding veil after her wedding in 1924. After Julia and Babs visit an exhibition showing a reproduction of Cornelia’s veil, Julia wonders if hers might have been the Vanderbilts’ and later learns of a tenuous connection between the families. Though it lacks the emotional power of Harvey’s best work and passages devoted to the Vanderbilts’ lavish history can drag, the author easily switches between the time periods to locate momentous events in the characters’ lives and connect each story line with the veil at the center. Harvey, ever a fine storyteller, manages to keep the pages turning despite some rough patches. Agent: Elisabeth Weed, Book Group. (Mar.)